Club officials react as Barcelona players pictured celebrating with Neymar

As expected, Barcelona remain in the limelight as their struggles have been well-documented all summer.

They’ve missed out on targets, they were powerless when Paris Saint-Germain came knocking and snatched Neymar by paying the €222 million release clause and are facing real struggles in persuading both Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool to part ways with Ousmane Dembele and Philippe Coutinho respectively.

Tough summer

Things didn’t get any better for them this week either, as the Catalan giants’ official Twitter account was hacked and they ‘announced’ the signing of Angel di Maria from PSG, a club they have frosty relations with since the Brazilian superstar moved to the French capital.

Barca haven’t been going down without a fight, though, as they’re planning on suing Neymar for €8.5 million for breach of contract – a move his new club have condemned by releasing an official statement on their website where they were critical of Barca’s attitude.

That didn’t seem to have an effect on Neymar’s mood, though, as he was pictured enjoying being back in Spain for his son’s birthday celebration and a handful of his former team mates joined him in the festivities.

At the same time the suing story broke, the likes of Gerard Pique, Ivan Rakitic, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez turned up to the party and shared numerous images on social media where they were all having a good time.

Barca reaction

In high spirits, Messi went as far as trolling Pique on Instagram where he was pictured alongside Neymar, poking fun at the infamous ‘he stays’ tweet by claiming: “He came back.”

While it was all in good fun, Cadena Ser have reported on the backlash to the get-together and have claimed that the Blaugrana officials are very upset; referring to it as an ‘Instagram riot.’

The source has claimed that it wasn’t planned by the Barcelona players but knew they the lawsuit against their former team mate had been made public.

However, the club directors are fuming with how they seemed to have sided with the 25-year-old PSG star, just as they are about to begin legal proceedings against him and added that the players don’t want the club to mess up the name of Neymar anymore, so their stance is pretty clear.

The story mainly highlights how the board and the players don’t seem to be on the same page, and continues to show the cracks in what has proven to be a horrendous summer for the Spanish club.

With Barcelona, Neymar and PSG not looking to back down, this one could get ugly.